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Congress claims consensus on 25 Lok Sabha seats candidates

TNN | Updated: Mar 12, 2019, 7:52 IST

Deputy CM Sachin Pilot

JAIPUR: Top Congress leaders have been brainstorming in New Delhi for the past two days to shortlist the party’s candidates for 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan. The first round of meeting that started on Sunday evening continued till wee hours on Monday. The second round meeting began on Monday evening and was on till reports last came. Sources said the screening committee members, comprising AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal, chief minister Ashok Gehlot, deputy CM Sachin Pilot, AICC general secretary (Rajasthan) Avinash Pande and his four deputies, have reached broad consensus on candidates for 20 of the 25 seats in the state. For the Lok Sabha elections, the party leaders had initially ruled out fielding sitting MLAs or candidates who had lost the assembly elections held in December last year. The Congress think-tank, however, had a change of mind after recent political developments at the Centre. Now, the party has decided to shortlist candidates on just their winning abilities. This has created a possibility of state ministers and MLAs being party candidates in the elections due next month.

After the Sunday night’s meeting Pilot told reporters in Delhi, “This meeting was called to decide the candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. A broad consensus on all seats has been formed. We had a discussion on all aspects.” Pande too claimed that a broad consensus on all 25 seats has been reached. “We will go with only one name to the Congress’ Central Election Committee. All aspects were discussed during the course of the meeting. Winability, of course, is the most important criteria," he added.